THE MANAGER'S ANALYSIS OF VICTORY OVER CRAWLEY

NEIL Adams was pleased with how Norwich City’s youngsters stepped up to the challenge in their 3-1 Capital One Cup victory over Crawley Town.

Five Academy products started in the second round clash at Carrow Road, with Josh Murphy bagging a brace and Cameron Jerome netting the opener on his full debut for the Canaries.

City’s boss was happy with how experience and youth combined to ensure progression.

“You’ve got to put your trust in these kids, there’s got to be a time when you say to them to go and do it. I know them as well as anyone; I know what they’re capable of doing,” he said after the game.

“They’re ready for this now and you saw some really good performances out there tonight.

“We said when we won the FA Youth Cup that there needs to be a pathway for these players. Everyone has seen that there’s definitely a pathway there now. Josh obviously was the pick of the bunch, he scored two great goals.

“Then you’ve got Kyle McFadden, who I thought was excellent alongside Carlos (Cuellar), who equally was excellent. It’s pleasing as well for Cameron to score on his debut.

“I’ve got to give a lot of credit to the senior players in there as well; there’s a lot of talk about the youngsters but they’ve all played their part.”

City spent a large part of the second half withstanding pressure from their League One opponents, who caught Adams’ attention with their resolve after going two goals down early in the second goals.

“They were a very good team, I was really impressed with them to be honest,” he added.

“The third goal was right at the end, they made us work hard. They had one or two calls for a penalty too, but our goals were very good.

“A win’s a win. I’d take any win. People might have thought what we were going to do tonight; of course the priority is Bournemouth on Saturday.

“As I said after the Ipswich game, anyone with any sort of a knock whatsoever wouldn’t be risked, we just had a few more of those that we would have liked.”

Adams also outlined the diagnosis for Ryan Bennett after the defender was substituted against Ipswich Town on Saturday after picking up an ankle injury.

“Ryan had an operation this morning, and he’s going to be out for around six to eight weeks with an ankle ligament problem,” confirmed the Canaries’ manager.

“We had a look at it after the game and it didn’t look too clever, but you’re always keeping your fingers crossed. MRI scans revealed that he had ruptured one of his ligaments. The operation went really well but clearly now he’s going to be out for a few weeks.”